Few police officers receive training in impounding vehicles

Few police officers have received training in intercepting fleeing vehicles, despite the fact that it is a high-risk moment for all involved. This is what the police supervisory unit writes in a critical report, according to the Police newspaper.

In order to pull over a fleeing vehicle, a police officer must have completed the National Police Authority’s driver training stage 3. But it does not include information on appropriate methods of pulling over or any practical exercises.

According to the report from the Police’s supervisory unit, managers should renounce work environment responsibility if the staff do not receive the necessary training for the task, the newspaper writes.

In the absence of training, some of the police officers interviewed stated that they used YouTube to take part in instructional videos. The report also shows that there is uncertainty among the police about when a stop can be considered justified, how it should be done and at what stage during a pursuit that it is appropriate to stop.

Since 2018, there has been further training after step 3 where pre-trial is included as a practical element, but according to the Police’s HR department, only 390 police officers have participated in that further training in the years 2019–2021, which the supervisory unit describes as “a fraction of the emergency drivers”, writes the Police newspaper.